Lebanon unveiled a new government on January 22, 85 days after the resignation of prime minister Saad al-Hariri. Headed by Hassan Diab, it includes six female ministers, among them the defense minister, who has also been appointed deputy prime minister.

This is a first not only for Lebanon, but for the entire Arab world.

The Arab world’s first female interior minister has hailed her appointment as a “point of pride for all women”.

Raya al-Hassan is one of four women to take cabinet jobs in the new Lebanese government, a record for the country and three more than in the last government, in which even the minister for women was a man.

Lebanese politician Raya Hassan made history on Thursday when she became the first woman interior minister in the Arab world.

Mrs Hassan, 51, becomes the most senior of four women in the 30-strong government formed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri after nine months of political wrangling.

BEIRUT — Earlier this month, Lebanon voted in parliamentary elections to fill seats based on a new system of proportional representation. After the ballots were counted, women occupied six of the 128 seats.

In its highly anticipated parliamentary election in almost ten years, Lebanon saw a record number of women on the ballot. An unprecedented 113 women registered as candidates, and 86 of them made it to candidate lists. This was a whopping increase from 2009, when only 12 women candidates had registered.

Lebanon’s new Parliament will include six female lawmakers across the country, up from just four in the 2009-era Parliament, with several fresh faces. The landmark May 6 elections saw a record 86 women stand for Parliament, with every conventional party except for Hezbollah putting forward female candidates.

There are only four women in Lebanon’s female-unfriendly parliament, where even the women’s affairs minister is a man. A record number of female candidates – 84 to be precise – are trying to correct that jarring imbalance in Sunday’s election.

Lawyers, journalists, engineers, architects, NGO workers: the profile of the female candidates for the Lebanese parliamentary elections is as diversified as society itself.